


tiny rebellions

by Areiton



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Bucky Barnes Recovering, Domestic Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-23
Updated: 2020-06-23
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:21:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24882997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Areiton/pseuds/Areiton
Summary: There’s a list on Sam Wilson’s fridge.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Sam Wilson, James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Comments: 12
Kudos: 175





	tiny rebellions

**Author's Note:**

> It's my birthday so have a tiny fic! <3

There’s a list on Sam Wilson’s fridge. He glares at it, when he’s alone in the kitchen, but when he’s not--when he’s with Steve or Sam, he avoids it entirely. 

“It’s just a joke,” Steve tells him, once, when Winter stared at him, blank, with panic tightening his hands into fists, as Steve puts the empty orange juice bottle back in the fridge. “It’s good for Sam,” he added, smirking, and pushed off the counter to go shower. 

Winter slipped over to the fridge, fished the juice bottle out and quietly disposed of it. He breathed a little easier, knowing Steve wouldn’t be punished. 

~*~ 

He knows small rebellions. The tiny acts of defiance that were all that were afforded to him, under the weight of the Chair and the torture and the mind wipes that left him screaming. 

He knows what it is, to leave a weapon behind. To kill loud and messy. To let a child slip through his net and walk away while his primary targets lie bleeding out. 

He knows what it is, to fight the inevitable, to test the boundaries of the rules and limits placed upon him. 

He doesn’t know what it means, that Sam places them on Steve. That he places them on  _ Winter.  _

~*~ 

He leaves a plate of half eaten eggs on the table when he hears the keys in the door, ducks into his room, and locks it behind him, and he reaches for a knife, because he knows the rules, he  _ knows _ them. 

He stands there, half tense, knife loose at his side, listening to Sam and Steve teasing and laughing, and he hears Sam’s huff and curse, the way his plate scrapes over the table and clatters in the sink. “No one fuckin’ follows the rules,” Sam complains. 

But he doesn’t come barging into the tiny room-- _ this is yours. Not mine. Not Steve’s. Got that, Winter?-- _ and he doesn’t wait for Soldat to report for punishment. 

He doesn’t know what that means either. 

~*~ 

He leaves the TV on, when he slips out of Steve’s loose hold and goes to sleep. 

He covers him with a blanket, first--Steve doesn’t like the cold.

He’s awake, when he hears Sam muttering low and grumpy, an hour later, and the quiet white noise of the TV cuts off. 

~*~ 

Steve watches him, sometimes. When he leaves his boots under the coffee table. When he finishes the coffee and walks away without restarting it. When he steals a book and candles and commandeers the bathroom for two hours. 

There are  _ rules _ and he  _ breaks  _ them, again and again and again, and Sam grins, and grumps, and sometimes he curses, but there is never,  _ never _ a punishment. 

~*~ 

He lived in those tiny rebellions. Those small acts of wilful defiance, as much as the dreams of Steve. 

He lives in them, now. 

He still dreams of Steve. 

~*~ 

There is a new rule. 

He stares at it for a long time, while Sam sips his juice and eyes him. 

“You ok, Winter?” he asks, softly. Testing. Accepting. Willing always, to meet him where he is, willing to take his oddities, his weapons, his small act of defiance and rebellion. 

“Why did you let me come here?” he asks. It’s been six months since they found him, since Steve fell apart and Sam rolled his eyes and dragged both of them home, one sobbing, one silent. 

Six months of quiet disruption of his life, of Winter filling up his house and Sam’s grumpy acceptance. 

He’s never asked, before. 

“Because you’re a good person,” Sam says. “And because Steve’s a miserable bastard, when you’re not here.” 

He finishes his juice and tosses the bottle and Winter quietly finishes his coffee and leaves the empty pot behind. 

~*~ 

There’s a new rule. And he has broken all of them. 

All but one. 

~*~ 

He kisses Steve, and Sam grins to himself, and Steve makes a high, shocked noise and licks into his mouth, and Winter revels in his tiny rebellions. 

~*~ 

House Rules: 

  1. Throw away the OJ bottle 
  2. Put your shoes away
  3. Start a new pot of coffee if you finish it. 
  4. Clean your damn dishes
  5. Don't monopolize the bathroom 
  6. Turn off the TV and lights at the end of the day 
  7. No weapons in the house 
  8. No PDA




End file.
